Martin Rees

Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow,

Rees is an author of books on astronomy and science intended for the lay public and gives many public lectures and broadcasts. In 2010 he was invited to deliver the Reith Lectures for the BBC,^[33] now published as From Here to Infinity: Scientific Horizons. Rees thinks the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is worthwhile and has chaired the advisory board for the "Breakthrough Listen" project, a programme of SETI investigations funded by the Russian/US investor Yuri Milner.^[34]

In addition to expansion of his scientific interests, Rees has written and spoken extensively about the problems and challenges of the 21st century, and interfaces between science, ethics, and politics.

In 2007, he delivered the Gifford Lectures on 21st Century Science: Cosmic Perspective and Terrestrial Challenges at the University of St Andrews.^[41]

In August 2014, Rees was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.^[42]

In 2015, he was co-author of the report that launched the

His doctoral students have included Roger Blandford,^[3][4] Craig Hogan,^[5][6] Nick Kaiser^[44] Priyamvada Natarajan,^[7] and James E. Pringle.

To mark the 300th anniversary of the Board of Longitude in 2014, he instigated a programme of new challenge prizes of £5-10m under the name 'Longitude Prize 2014', which are administered by Nesta and for which he chairs the advisory board. The themes of the first two prizes are the reduction of inappropriate antibiotic use, and enhancing the safety and independence of dementia sufferers. The Longitude Prize on Dementia was recently announced in 2022.

In his general writings and in the House of Lords his focus has been on the uses and abuses of advanced technology and on issues such as assisted dying, preservation of dark skies, and reforms to broaden the post-16 and undergraduate curricula in the UK.^[45] He is also a current member of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.^[46]

Selected bibliography

• ISBN 0-553-34740-3
• New Perspectives in Astrophysical Cosmology, 1995;
  ISBN 0-521-64544-1
• Gravity's Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe, 1995;
  ISBN 0-521-71793-0
• Before the Beginning – Our Universe and Others, 1997;
  ISBN 0-7382-0033-6
• Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe, 1999;
  ISBN 0-297-84297-8
• Our Cosmic Habitat, 2001;
  ISBN 0-691-11477-3
• ISBN 0-465-06862-6
• What We Still Don't Know
  ISBN 978-0-7139-9821-4
  yet to be published.
• From Here to Infinity: Scientific Horizons, 2011;
  ISBN 978-1-84668-503-3
• ISBN 978-0-691-18044-1
• Rees, Martin (September 2020). "Our place in the universe". Scientific American. 323 (3): 56–62. (Online version is titled "How astronomers revolutionized our view of the cosmos".)
• The End of Astronauts (co-author Donald Goldsmith), 2022, Harvard University Press
  ISBN 9780674257726
• If Science is to Save us, 2022, Polity Press
  ISBN 9781509554201
• Rees, M.,"Cosmology and High Energy Astrophysics: A 50 year Perspective on Personality, Progress, and Prospects", Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 60:1–30, 2022.

Honours and awards

He has been president of the

Science Academy of Turkey^[48] and the Japan Academy. He became president of the Royal Society on 1 December 2005^[49][50] and continued until the end of the Society's 350th Anniversary Celebrations in 2010. In 2011, he was awarded the Templeton Prize.^[51] In 2005, Rees was elevated to a life peerage, sitting as a crossbencher in the House of Lords as Baron Rees of Ludlow, of Ludlow in the County of Shropshire.^[52][53] In 2005, he was awarded the Crafoord Prize.^[54]

Other awards and honours include:

• 1975 – Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^[55]
• 1982 – Elected to the National Academy of Sciences^[56]
• 1984 – Heineman Prize
• 1987 – Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 1989 – Balzan Prize for High Energy Astrophysics
• 1992 – Knight Bachelor^[57]
• 1993 – Bruce Medal
• 1993 – Elected to the American Philosophical Society^[58]
• 1995 – Honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala University, Sweden^[59]
• 1999 – Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement^[60]
• 2000 – Bruno Rossi Prize
• 2001 – Gruber Prize in Cosmology
• 2003 – Albert Einstein World Award of Science^[61]
• 2004 – Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society
• 2004 – Lifeboat Foundation's Guardian Award
• 2004 –
  Michael Faraday Prize
  for science communication
• 2005 –
  Life Peerage^[62]
• 2005 –
  James Peebles
• 2007 – Order of Merit – the personal gift of The Queen^[63]
• 2007 –
  Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum
• 2007 –
  Honorary Fellow^[2] of the Royal Academy of Engineering^[2]
• 2011 – Templeton Prize^[64]
• 2012 –
  Institute of Physics Isaac Newton Medal
• 2013 – Dirac Medal ICTP^[65]
• 2016 – Honorary Doctorate, Harvard University (awarded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US on 26 May 2016)
• 2017 – Lilienfeld Prize
• 2020 – Fritz Zwicky Prize for Astrophysics and Cosmology^[66]
• 2020 – Elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.^[67]
• 2023 – Copley Medal^[68]

The Asteroid 4587 Rees and the Sir Martin Rees Academic Scholarship at Shrewsbury International School are named in his honour.

In June 2022, to celebrate his 80th birthday, Rees was the subject of the BBC programme The Sky at Night, in conversation with Professor Chris Lintott.^[69]

Personal life

Rees married the anthropologist Caroline Humphrey in 1986.^[1] He is an atheist but has criticized militant atheists for being too hostile to religion.^[70][71][72] Rees is a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party, but has no party affiliation when sitting in the House of Lords.^[73][74]

See also

• Particle chauvinism

References

1. ^
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2. ^ ^{a b c d} "List of Fellows". raeng.org.uk. Archived from the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Martin Rees at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
4. ^
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5. ^
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6. ^ ^{a b} Hogan, Craig James. "Curriculum vitae" (PDF). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
7. ^ ^{a b} "CURRICULUM VITAE: Priyamvada Natarajan". Yale CampusPress. Yale University. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
8. ^ "Martin Rees – the Mathematics Genealogy Project".
9. ^ "Curriculum Vitae – Nicholas Kaiser" (PDF). ifa.hawaii.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2005. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
10. ^ Anon (2015). "The Lord Rees of Ludlow OM Kt HonFREng FRS". royalsociety. Royal Society. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2016.

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12. ^ "Portraits of Astronomers Royal". rmg.co.uk. Royal Museums Greenwich. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
13. ^ "Astronomer Royal". The British Monarchy. Royal Household. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
14. ^ ^{a b c} Martin Rees publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
15. ^ Martin J. Rees at Library of Congress, with 23 library catalogue records
16. ^ "2005 talk: Is this our final century?". ted.com. accessed 31 August 2014
17. ^ "Interviews with Charlie Rose, 2003 and 2008". charlierose.com. Archived from the original on 28 January 2010. accessed 31 August 2014
18. ^ Anon (2010). "New Statesman Interviews Martin Rees". newstatesman.com. New Statesman. accessed 31 August 2014
19. YouTube
20. ^ GRO Register of Births: SEP 1942 9c 1465 YORK – Martin J. Rees, mmn=Bett
21. ^ ^{a b} "Templeton Prize Winners – Discover Laureates From 1973 to Today". Templeton Prize.
22. ^ Rees, Martin (1967). Physical Processes in Radio Sources and the Intergalactic Medium. copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
23. ^ "Inventory: Martin Rees". Financial Times. 2014. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2014.(subscription required)
24. ^ "Master & fellows". Darwin College Cambridge. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
25. ^ "Honorary Fellows". www.kings.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
26. ^ "Honorary Fellow | Clare Hall". www.clarehall.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
27. ^ "Honorary and St Radegund Fellows". Jesus College Cambridge. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
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33. ^ "BBC Radio 4 – The Reith Lectures, Martin Rees – Scientific Horizons, The Scientific Citizen". BBC. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
34. ^ Interview with Paul Broks Archived 23 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Prospectmagazine.co.uk; accessed 31 August 2014.
35. American Academy of Achievement
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37. James Martin 21st Century School
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39. ^ Lewsey, Fred (25 November 2012). "Humanity's last invention and our uncertain future". Research News. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
40. ^ Who We Are, Future of Life Institute, 2014, archived from the original on 7 May 2014, retrieved 7 May 2014
41. ^ "The St Andrews Gifford Lectures". st-andrews.ac.uk. University of St Andrews.
42. ^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories". The Guardian. London. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
43. Guardian News Media
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44. ^ "Nick Kaiser | Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics". higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
45. ^ https://members.parliament.uk/member/3751/contributions
46. ^ https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/193/science-and-technology-committee-lords/membership/
47. ^ "M.J. Rees". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
48. ^ "Foreign Honorary Members". Bilim Akademisi. Archived from the original on 6 January 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
49. ^ "Rees tipped to head science body". BBC News. 29 March 2005. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
50. ^ Martin Rees nominated for presidency of the Royal Society Archived 1 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine, royalsoc.ac.uk, 29 March 2005; accessed 31 August 2014.
51. ISSN 0261-3077
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52. ^ "State: Crown Office". The London Gazette. No. 57753. 9 September 2005. p. 11653. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
53. ^ Sir Martin Rees appointed to the House of Lords Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, admin.cam.ac.uk, 1 August 2005; accessed 31 August 2014.
54. ^ Professor Sir Martin Rees wins Crafoord Prize Archived 29 March 2005 at the Wayback Machine, admin.cam.ac.uk, 10 February 2005; accessed 31 August 2014.
55. ^ "Martin John Rees". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 7 August 2023.
56. ^ "Martin J. Rees". www.nasonline.org.
57. ^ "No. 52935". The London Gazette. 29 May 1992. p. 9177.
58. ^ "APS Member History".
59. ^ "Honorary doctorates – Uppsala University, Sweden". www.uu.se. 9 June 2023.
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65. ^ "ICTP - The Medallists". www.ictp.it.
66. ^ "European Astronomical Society 2020 prizes" (PDF). European Astronomical Society. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
67. ^ "AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
68. ^ Copley Medal 2023
69. ^ "BBC Four – The Sky at Night, The Astronomer Royal at 80". BBC.
70. ^ "Templeton Report: Martin J. Rees Wins 2011 Templeton Prize". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
71. TheGuardian.com
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72. ^ "Can humanity survive the future?". Financial Times. October 2018. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2020. Rees, while stating he is an atheist, declares that he shares a sense of "mystery" with those who believe in God.
73. ^ "Martin Rees: 'We shouldn't attach any weight to what Hawking says". The Independent. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
74. ^ Radford, Tim (2 December 2005). "Guardian profile: Martin Rees". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2020.

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Professional and academic associations
Preceded by Robert May	60th President of the Royal Society 2005–2010	Succeeded by Paul Nurse
Preceded by Ken Pounds	78th President of the Royal Astronomical Society 1992–1994	Succeeded by Carole Jordan
Academic offices
Preceded by Amartya Sen	37th Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 2004–2012	Succeeded by Gregory Winter
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Lord Goodlad	Gentlemen Baron Rees of Ludlow	Followed by The Lord Turner of Ecchinswell